Not sure how the light on the new PW2 matches up to it, but the Aura HD certainly seems the best quality up to now. Although, I'd check for feedback on the brightness of the light at a low setting, that seems to be a 'feature' of the Kobo's that it doesn't quite go low enough.

The Aura HD definitely has the best light I've personally seen (compared to the Kobo Glo, Nook Glow & Paperwhite 1), but I haven't had a chance to see the Paperwhite 2 in hand. I'm not a big light fan though and hardly use it. My biggest problem with my Aura HD is some of the little glitches/bugs that have randomly happened since I got it in April.

I have a kobo glo, and the light, while not useless, is too bright at the lowest setting to read for more than a few minutes in a dark room. Also the light is a bit patchy.

Check out this video by these guys. It shows the light on the Aura HD does go much lower than on the Glo. At least on their device that is... devices' lights even under the same model tend to differ slightly.

I've used the Glo, Aura HD and the new Aura and I would say it's easily the Aura HD with the best light between those three. That`s all I can say with complete honesty based on what I`ve actually used for any real period of time.

mr_nihilism, between the new Aura and Aura HD, which one goes goes the lowest?

I never compared at the lowest setting, and I no longer have the Aura (tried it for a week) because I was not happy with it. I`m one of those that likes to have the light in the range of 30-50% when it`s needed. All I can say is the general quality was better in on the HD.